Fifty Million Shots to Win a Line of Trenches 



Nearly nine million pounds of artillery projectiles 

 were hurled at the Germans in a single engagement 



French Official Photos. 



Thousands upon thousands of cases of shells are unloaded at the artillery depots of the 

 various armies, after which they are transported in smaller lots to distributing stations 



IN the early days of the war, when the 

 Germans were turning out 250,000 

 shells a day, the British were producing 

 2,500 in high explosives and 13,000 in 

 shrapnel. Before the war, Germany held 

 an average stock of 3,000 shells for each 

 gun, while France had 700. When the war 

 began, France estimated a daily expendi- 

 ture of 13,500 shells, but before 

 a year had elapsed, she was 

 firing 100,000 a day. 



According to an official re- 

 port of the French Army 

 Headquarters, the French 

 artillery north of Arras fired 

 300,000 shots within 24 hours, 

 the total weight of which 

 would be 8,901,000 pounds. 

 During the great French of- 

 fensive of September, 191 5, in 

 the Champagne, the French 

 fired at the rate of 900,000 

 shots an hour — a total of 50,- 

 000,000 shots in three days on 

 a twenty-five-mile front. 



The cost of ammunition, 

 considered in the light of its 

 wastefulness, is appalling. A 

 year ago, Canada had con- 

 tributed $350,000,000 worth of 

 shells. The United States had 

 exported ammunition, explo- rows along 



sives and firearms worth a half-billion. It 

 is needless to state that the last year has 

 been the most productive of all, not only in 

 the United States and Canada, but in 

 European countries as well. Figures of 

 shell production run into unthinkable 

 billions. For this the tremendous capacity 

 of the guns used is largely responsible. 



are housed in rough portable shacks arranged in 

 narrow-gage tracks which lead to the fighting front 



70 



